The Myth Of Student Engagement

the heart of the student engagement myth: that adding or changing classroom elements, doing a new project, or exposing a student to a new technology or method of instruction will magically transform apathy into a white-hot fire of curiosity.

True engagement comes when a teacher knows a student’s strengths and interests beyond the classroom and uses that knowledge to deepen relationships. If we go into our rooms each day to teach but not connect, we can’t expect students to care beyond a test score, if that.

Can you answer these questions about your students? If you can, how do you apply that knowledge to connect with them?

*What home issues are affecting their work?

*Do they have a non-academic passion?

*What are their favorite shows, games, songs, or books?

*Do they have a preferred learning style?

*What is their hidden talent?

*What goals do they have for themselves in the future?

My note: easily said then done; if the instructor is overloaded with 4 classes 100 students per class, the suggestion above is rendered useless.

Use hashtags: If you come across a useful hashtag, click on it to see what else you’ll find.

Subscribe: Keep up with useful keywords and hashtags by setting up an RSS subscription for them.

Pay attention to trends: Stay on top of the latest in your field by seeking out and participating in trending topics. For instance, students enrolled in political science degree programs may want to follow trending topics related to upcoming local and state elections.

Retweetist: Retweetist shares popular trends, topics, and people using retweets on Twitter.

Tweet Volume: With this tool, you can find out if your keywords are popular on Twitter or not.

Tweetmeme: Check out Tweetmeme to learn about retweeting stats for articles on Twitter.

Twitt(url)y: Find out about hot news with this tool that sorts URLs by how frequently they are mentioned in tweets.

Twackle: With this aggregator, you’ll be able to find news and more in a single destination.

A Useful Twitter Cheat Sheet

Twitter Tips For Students and Teachers

Actually complete your bio. You’ll get more mileage out of your Twitter account if you actually create a profile that says something about you, offering potential followers information about your interests, professional or otherwise.

Learn the basics. Learn the basic terminology for Twitter and the major functions it can perform by doing a little reading on helpful social media blogs beforehand. You’ll thank yourself later.

Get some style. Before you send out your first tweet, decide what kind of tweeter you want to be. The London School of Economics and Political Science offers up three major styles here so you can learn more about the subject.

Learn from others. One of the best ways to learn how to use Twitter is to spend some time seeing how others have set up and been using their accounts. Luckily, there are tons of other academics on Twitter to learn from.

Don’t be mean. The Internet is full of people who are all too happy to say some pretty harsh things, but just because they’re incredibly tactless doesn’t mean you have to be. Never say anything on Twitter you wouldn’t want people to find out about, or wouldn’t say in any other situation. If people are hassling you, ignore them and move on.

Announce that you’ll be joining a hashtag chat or conference. If you’re going to be tweeting more than usual, let your followers know in advance so they can choose to tune out if they’re not interested in your live tweeting or chatting.

Actually respond in a reasonable amount of time. If someone asks you a question or directs a tweet your way, respond as soon as you can, just like with email or any other digital communication, especially if you’re using Twitter in your courses.

Be gracious and say thank you. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way on Twitter. If someone helps you out or shares your research, don’t forget to say thanks.

Make mistakes. No one is perfect, and if you’re new to Twitter you’re probably going to have a few gaffes along the way as you learn the ropes. That’s OK! Don’t let it slow your enthusiasm for using the social site.

Start your own hashtag chat. Twitter chats have exploded in popularity in recent months, so get in on the trend while the getting’s good. Start your own chat on an academic topic, or chime in on other bigger existing chats for a chance to network.

Find and use some hashtags. You’ll make it easier for others to find your tweets if you add a few relevant hashtags here and there.

Do ‘Follow Friday’. Every Friday, Twitter explodes with suggestions on who to follow. Offer up your own and you may just end up in someone else’s suggestions.

Share the stuff you’re reading. Reading a story on a site like Edudemic? Found an amazing article in pop-science about your research field? Share it! If it’s interesting, it’ll probably get retweeted and passed around, and you might just interest a student or two to boot.

Reach out and connect with someone. Not everyone you connect with on Twitter has to be in your field or even in academia. In fact, you might enrich your research and your professional life by reaching out to other fields and professions.

Do some backchannel talks. Whether you have students post to Twitter during class or ask them to share comments during a presentation, these backchannel talks can help facilitate conversation and provide a record of a shared learning experience.

Create your own classroom hashtag. One way to keep classroom tweets organized is by having a shared hashtag that all students use. Just make sure no one else is using it!

Connect Twitter to Moodle or Blackboard. You can help push students to interact using Twitter by adding a Twitter widget to your Blackboard or Moodle site for the class. Follow the instructions here to get started.

Don’t mandate your students follow you on Twitter. Don’t force students to follow you on Twitter unless it’s part of the course. Let them decide to follow or not.

Be happy (see #5 above). You don’t have to be super serious on Twitter to earn students’ respect. In fact, loosening up could just help improve your rapport with your students.

Live-tweet a conference or event (see #6). Share your conference-going experience by tweeting updates about it throughout the day to your followers.

Share some of your lesson plans. Educators and academics can come together to share and collaborate on lesson plans quite easily using Twitter.

Collaborate with other teachers / parents / students. If you find you have similar interests with another academic, use Twitter to work together on research ideas, classroom solutions, and other topics.

Collaborate with other classrooms in your school, district, or another country.Why work alone when you can connect with other college classrooms? That’s just what many college classes are doing these days.

Host reading discussions. Holding a reading discussion over Twitter gives everyone a chance to chime in, even shy students who might not otherwise speak up.

Actually use Twitter for writing assignments. Want to teach your students the art of brevity? Assign them poetry or prose to be written on Twitter.

The Teacher’s Guide To Twitter Hashtags

Are you looking to figure out exactly which Twitter hashtag is the right one to follow? There’s no shortage of options and it can feel overwhelming. Sure, there’s the popular #edchat and #edtech hashtags most of us follow. But what about the more focused tags that you’re missing out on?

I am offering a new workshop: Infographics http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/info/.The workshop is promoted through the electronic signage, but I would like to use also the old fashioned hard-copy posters and reach students in the dorms.
The student consultant on the second floor of Miller Center tells me that he does not live in the dorms, but the IT student workers on the first floor might.
So I head down the first floor. About 10 student workers are behind the c0unter. After I ask, one of them, apparently in charge asks “Why.” Although this is against the “culture of service,” I do not argue and explain why. One student jumps up and says, “I can help posting them,” but the same person, who is in charge says “No.” I wait for a while and since there is no explanation why, I ask. The person in charge responds: “Wait until Sam [Barhorst] is back from a meeting and he can decide.”

After all promises for “breaking silos” and “restructuring IT to become more friendly and service-oriented,” I am stunned to see the stagnation and ridiculous hierarchy (Friedman’s world is flat, but apparently SCSU’ IT department is not part of it) proliferating instead of diminishing.

I cannot imagine what would it take to collaborate with the IT department, if a SIMPLE question like distributing workshop flyers to student dorms turns into such a bureaucratic nightmare. I also am curious to see how creativity is fostered in an environment where student workers are sanctioning themselves, as the student worker in charge cut the student who volunteered to help.

I do NOT feel that the IT department has become any service oriented, but only keep deteriorating during my 15-years tenure at SCSU.

Baron, S., Richardson, B., Earles, D., & Khogeer, Y. (2011). Harketing academics and practitioners: Towards togetherness. Journal Of Customer Behaviour, 10(3), 291-304.http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dbuh%26AN%3d70255915%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
The discussion points to the need for new ways of making academic research accessible if it is to have a greater impact on practice. Accessibility should not be at the expense of normal, academic rigour. It could take various forms such as new submission categories for journal. articles, the development of new blogging communities, and other means of fostering the practitioner/academic dialogue. The paper concludes by requesting the engagement of the entire marketing community to participate in a new discussion group onLinkedIn that has been specifically set up to foster dialogue and encourage progress

Paul, J., Baker, H. M., & Cochran, J. (2012). Effect of online social networking on student academic performance.Computers In Human Behavior, 28(6), 2117-2127. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.06.016http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dkeh%26AN%3d79561025%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
#SocialMedia and students place a higher value on the technologies their instructors use effectively in the classroom. a negative impact of social media usage on academic performance. rather CONSERVATIVE conclusions.
Students should be made aware of the detrimental impact of online social networking on their potential academic performance. In addition to recommending changes in social networking related behavior based on our study results, findings with regard to relationships between academic performance and factors such as academic competence, time management skills, attention span, etc., suggest the need for academic institutions and faculty to put adequate emphasis on improving the student’s ability to manage time efficiently and to develop better study strategies. This could be achieved via workshops and seminars that familiarize and train students to use new and intuitive tools such as online calendars, reminders, etc. For example, online calendars are accessible in many devices and can be setup to send a text message or email reminder of events or due dates. There are also online applications that can help students organize assignments and task on a day-to-day basis. Further, such workshops could be a requirement of admission to academic programs. In the light of our results on relationship between attention span and academic performance, instructors could use mandatory policies disallowing use of phones and computers unless required for course purposes. My note: I completely disagree with the this decision: it can be argued that instructors must make their content delivery more engaging and thus, electronic devices will not be used for distraction.

Lilburn, J. (2012). Commercial Social Media and the Erosion of the Commons: Implications for Academic Libraries. Portal: Libraries And The Academy, 12(2), 139-153.http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3deric%26AN%3dEJ975615%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
The general consensus emerging to date is that the Web 2.0 applications now widely used in academic libraries have given librarians new tools for interacting with users, promoting services, publicizing events and teaching information literacy skills. We are, by now, well versed in the language of Web 2.0. The 2.0 tools – wikis, blogs, microblogs, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, video or photo sharing sites, to name just a few – are said to be open, user-centered, and to increase user engagement, interaction, collaboration, and participation. Web 2.0 is said to “empower creativity, to democratize media production, and to celebrate the individual while also relishing the power of collaboration and social networks.”4 All of this is in contrast with what is now viewed as the static, less interactive, less empowering pre-Web 2.0 online environment. (p. 140)
Taking into account the social, political, economic, and ethical issues associated with Web 2.0, other scholars raise questions about the generally accepted understanding of the benefits of Web 2.0. p. 141

The decision to integrate commercial social media into existing library services seems almost inevitable, if not compulsory. Yet, research that considers the short- and long-term implications of this decision remains lacking. As discussed in the sections above, where and how institutions choose to establish a social media presence is significant. It confers meaning. Likewise, the absence of a presence can also confer meaning, and future p. 149

BROWN, K., LASTRES, S., & MURRAY, J. (2013). Social Media Strategies and Your Library. Information Outlook,17(2), 22-24.http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dkeh%26AN%3d89594021%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
Establishing an open leadership relationship with these stakeholders necessitates practicing five rules of open leadership: (1) respecting the power that your patrons and employees have in their relationship with you and others, (2) sharing content constantly to assist in building trust, (3) nurturing curiosity and humility in yourself as well as in others, (4) holding openness accountable, and (5) forgiving the failures of others and yourself. The budding relationships that will flourish as a result of applying these rules will reward each party involved.
Whether you intend it or not, your organization’s leaders are part of your audience. As a result, you must know your organization’s policies and practices (in addition to its people) if you hope to succeed with social media. My note: so, if one defines a very narrow[sided] policy, then the entire social media enterprise is….Third, be a leader and a follower. My note: not a Web 1.0 – type of control freak, where content must come ONLY from you and be vetoed by you!All library staff have their own login accounts and are expected to contribute to and review

Paul, J., Baker, H. M., & Cochran, J. (2012). Effect of online social networking on student academic performance.Computers In Human Behavior, 28(6), 2117-2127. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.06.016http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dkeh%26AN%3d79561025%26site%3deds-live%26scope%3dsite
#SocialMedia and students place a higher value on the technologies their instructors use effectively in the classroom. a negative impact of social media usage on academic performance. rather CONSERVATIVE conclusions.
Students should be made aware of the detrimental impact of online social networking on their potential academic performance. In addition to recommending changes in social networking related behavior based on our study results, findings with regard to relationships between academic performance and factors such as academic competence, time management skills, attention span, etc., suggest the need for academic institutions and faculty to put adequate emphasis on improving the student’s ability to manage time efficiently and to develop better study strategies. This could be achieved via workshops and seminars that familiarize and train students to use new and intuitive tools such as online calendars, reminders, etc. For example, online calendars are accessible in many devices and can be setup to send a text message or email reminder of events or due dates. There are also online applications that can help students organize assignments and task on a day-to-day basis. Further, such workshops could be a requirement of admission to academic programs. In the light of our results on relationship between attention span and academic performance, instructors could use mandatory policies disallowing use of phones and computers unless required for course purposes. My note: I completely disagree with the this decision: it can be argued that instructors must make their content delivery more engaging and thus, electronic devices will not be used for distraction

MANGAN, K. (2012). Social Networks for Academics Proliferate, Despite Some Doubts. Chronicle Of Higher Education, 58(35), A20.http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=5&sid=bbba2c7a-28a6-4d56-8926-d21572248ded%40sessionmgr114&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=75230216Academia.edu
While Mendeley’s users tend to have scientific backgrounds, Zotero offers similar technical tools for researchers in other disciplines, including many in the humanities. The free system helps researchers collect, organize, share, and cite research sources.
“After six years of running Zotero, it’s not clear that there is a whole lot of social value to academic social networks,” says Sean Takats, the site’s director, who is an assistant professor of history at George Mason University. “Everyone uses Twitter, which is an easy way to pop up on other people’s radar screens without having to formally join a network.

What does Horizon 2020 mean for research libraries?

In the 8 projects that LIBER was involved in under the previous funding programme, FP7, nearly 10% of LIBER’s members (around 35 libraries) were partners. They worked on diverse activities such as the digitization of cultural heritage, digital preservation, research data sharing, open access policies and the interoperability of research infrastructures. We’d like to see even more libraries participating under H2020.